Rivals of Aether - Official Thread

[dquarius]

just checking in i will soon be giving my thoughts on the build soon ive just gotten a lob and ive been busy since >.> never found the time to post but i will soon

 

[CaptainCrisb]

Wait, the new build's out? Oh........ are they still being distributed?

 

[steak4prez]

This is interesting, I havent thought about 3v1 like at all... Maybe if team attack was on that would help? I don't know if enemy AI could handle that though.

Yeah, someone suggested this on stream. With the way the game is now, I agree that this is probably the way to go about it, but I honestly feel like that's kind of a band-aid solution? Enemy AI should be able to handle it, could always do some playtesting of it and see what happens since those features are already in the game. I think I'll look into this when I stream tomorrow.

Also, since we're talking about new modes, have you thought about adding any more versus modes? (As in alternatives to Time and Stock.) In particular, something like a "Knockout" mode, where the winner is the first player to X number of KOs would be really cool in my opinion.

COIN BATTLE
Having an alternative to Time and Stock would be great. I think that people have previously brought up Stamina Mode, and I can't remember if Dan felt that was feasible or not, but it would be neat.
Maybe there could be some kind of currency that appears on the map? Like... spirits or something that each character needs to collect and whoever has the most by the end wins? Essentially coin battle
OR! Could have a nod to Bonus Battle from Melee and whoever has the most end-of-game points wins. Landing combos and stuff gets you the score you need to win. Though, compared to Smash Bros, there aren't really that many points to earn in battles.... Shrug! Gametype ideas are cool.

Ah, interesting. Maybe with each build if we could get sent a list of Patch Notes, that would be pretty awesome, as mine didn't show any changes from the last version, only Debug Codes and such.

Hey, if you check on r/rivalsofaether, on the front page you should find a thread titled 'March Alpha Build Patch Notes & Bug Thread'. Should have what you're looking for. Patch notes earlier than March build, though, I dunno about. Unfortunately, Reddit only allows you to have one stickied thread so it's not on top, but, maybe we could keep the latest patch notes in the sidebar?

Anyway, those are my thoughts. I'm going to be making Rivals of Aether content on YouTube, so stay tuned!

Hype!

 

[akf09]

@ 4nace

awesome that kragg is going to be able to pull rock from pillar again, its really not a big deal its just SOOOOO frustrating when u need it. also so hyped for online play ( i think you mentioned that?) cant wait to see what you come out with next man keep it goin!

 

[JCOnyx]

Quick thing I remembered for controls since you said you were working on more options, being able to use the right stick for tilts instead of strong attacks would be nice for some individuals I know that use that control scheme.

 

[RoA_Zam]

This reminds me, I've been meaning to ask: is color editing still a thing in the new build? I mean obviously those aren't examples, but is it still possible?

If I'm being honest, not being able to do it anymore would slightly dampen my interest in this build.

It is, but the format for how to do them is different. I'll post the new ini file over the weekend for you all

 

[HermitHelmet]

So I started working on a cool technique I discovered for Zetterburn.

 

[Aizen]

Hey! It's been awhile since I've been on the thread, I've been fairly busy. After Saturday I will have plenty of time to give to RoA. Yay! I've missed being able to play for hours. I have a monthly smash fest Saturday, that I had planned to bring RoA to but I don't have a second controller at this point in time that works with RoA and felt that having just one controller would dampen people's want to try the game while it's available. So I will wait til next month when I will definitely have another controller to demo it to the community here. Other then that, I will return sometime after Saturday and hopefully have some updates if I find anything that needs attention. There is one thing that's more of a cosmetic bug but it slightly bothers me, I'll write up about it more when I have the chance to go in depth next week.

 

[FadeAmmo]

wew, how long has it been?
Just been looking at people reveiwing Fosburn, and he seems like a great player.
If your ever going to add intros, would you put special intros, like:
The screen breaks in half revealing Zetterburn and Forsburns faces,before snapping shut
Also, will (if there is someone out there to do this) you ad a tutorial on how to make cha-
wait no... that would just be M.U.G.E.N forever.

 

[Cirby64]

So I started working on a cool technique I discovered for Zetterburn.

I'm pretty sure that's not a combo. Looks like you could easily airdodge out of it. So I don't know what you could use it for.

 

[JCOnyx]

It's not a combo at all, you have a good half a second to just roll, jump or even parry in between. Some attacks will even beat out the second attempt to UpSpecial.

That doesn't mean it doesn't look cool though, but going for another UpSpecial after canceling it isn't a good idea. Mix up parrying, jumping into a Dair, and Shine afterwards to put your opponent into a guessing situation. It's quite the mind game.

 

[akf09]

already knew about "fire shuffleing" only useful for igniting and strong attacking to finish off damaged enomies in my opinion

 

[HermitHelmet]

already knew about "fire shuffleing" only useful for igniting and strong attacking to finish off damaged enomies in my opinion

This guy gets it. It's not used to combo into itself, it's used as a combination of Igniting and Mindgames. Think of it as a mixup, a slower alternate of dash dancing that has a slow-ish hitbox attached to it

 

[GigaMarth]

Is there going to be a online multiplayer??

 

[JCOnyx]

Going to start streaming for a bit if anyone is interested: http://www.twitch.tv/jamesonyx

 

[someonetookjacob]

Is there going to be a online multiplayer??

There will be. Right now we dont know anything more than that really though.

 

[HermitHelmet]

Is there going to be a online multiplayer??

SoonTM

 

[steak4prez]

Is there going to be a online multiplayer??

When the game is released, there will be online multiplayer for both the Xbox One and PC versions.

I think I figured out how to reproduce the Team Battle bug. At first I suspected it was when Forsburn's clone got a kill in Team Battle, but then I had a match where it was me (Kragg) vs. Wrastor and Forsburn. Forsburn created his clone, then I got a kill on Wrastor, which should have just decreased Wrastor's stock from 3 to 2, but instead, ended the match and gave me the glitched Results Screen.

Bug: When playing Team Battle, sometimes the battle will end before the win condition is met and the Results Screen will be glitchy.

How to reproduce:

• Set mode to Team Battle
• Set stocks to any number over 1
• Set up 1v2 battle
• Have at least one player/CPU be Forsburn (I only tested this with myself being on the 1 side and Forsburn being on the 2 side)
• While Forsburn has a clone active, have any character get a kill, while not necessarily reducing stock to 0.
• The match should end abruptly, even if the win condition has not been met.

(You can check my latest video on Twitch to see this in action at about 1:06:00, then the rest of the video continue to attempt to reproduce it)
I tested this once in 1v3 (Me as Kragg vs. 3 Forsburns), too, but the results were unreliable. I (am pretty sure, at least) got a kill while one clone was active and the match did not end. Later, when there were two Forsburns left, and there was a clone active, I got a kill and the match did end abruptly when it shouldn't have.

Which, by the way! Before I talked about how 1v3 was nearly impossible (without Team Attack on, at least). Well, assuming you don't run into this bug, I think your best chance to accomplish 1v3 is if you do Kragg vs. 3 Forsburns. The AI for Forsburn seems to be the least scary (in my experience) and Kragg is probably the best at taking on several opponents between his natural survivability, super armor on Side Special, and ability to hit all opponents by planting a rock and then hitting it to send the shards flying through all of them. I definitely would've won if the bug didn't exist, so I guess it's technically possible!

Although, your computer has to be able to handle smoke spam from 3 Forsburns, it definitely lags up the game for me...

 

[Boasting Toast]

So I started working on a cool technique I discovered for Zetterburn.

It's nowhere near a combo. There's no reason to do that instead of just wavedashing out of a neutral B. Like a waveshine. Waveshining with neutral B allows you to combo into literally anything. Waveshine > fsmash is basically guaranteed and leagues more useful.

 

[Cirby64]

This guy gets it. It's not used to combo into itself, it's used as a combination of Igniting and Mindgames. Think of it as a mixup, a slower alternate of dash dancing that has a slow-ish hitbox attached to it

I mean I guess I kinda get it. But I don't see any reason to using this when you could just wave shine.

 

[CaptainCrisb]

Sorry guys for going off topic, but it looks like there was a large portion of playtesters that was cut (most likely to include newer ones perhaps), and it appears my friend and I were one of those people... I'll stick around continue to look forward to the game's release.

 

[HermitHelmet]

Meh, I'll agree it might have been a bit ignorant of me to think that Burn Shuffling didn't have a better alternative, but whatever :S

Anyway, I also decided to make a short video on using the Spring on Aether Air Armada, and a fair amount of tricks you can do with it!

 

[Big Papi]

January build was brought to my college(UMD)'s weekly smashfest and it was a hit. Drew attention to a good amount of melee and pm players. There was a couple who couldnt even put it down XD. This game is amazing and the characters have a quality to them that makes you want to main them, without even trying out the others haha. I just had to apply for the March build (even though I know a limited amount got it), hopefully they'll consider UMD's competitive smash scene that we have.

Anyways, even though I'm not a playtester, I just wanted to provide some feedback based on last night's smash fest. One thing everybody wanted was taunts. Looked it up and saw that developers already know that feature is in high demand. Another small suggestion one had was to have an aerial parry, one that is even harder to do than the ground one, with less frames, when you air dodge in place. His other suggestion was putting moonwalking into the game.

Some questions we had that we couldnt fully figure out were:

Can anything be parried? We were trying to parry wrastor's down b during alot of the matches but couldnt seem to get the timing right. Moves like that and orcane's bubbles we never could successfully parry.

If two zetterburns are playing, can one get a burn bonus for smash attacking another character burned by the other zetterburn? For awhile we thought we couldnt but it did happen sometimes. Do the zetterburns have to be on the same team? Is it some type of bug where a character is getting burned by both colored fires but animation only shows one type of colored fire? Or are we just that dumb to never have noticed?

Lastly, I thought I had heard the January build was compatible with mayflash adapter (the purple two port GC) but we couldnt figure out how to get that to work. Is there something extra we shouldve done to get that to work for Aether?

Thanks for such a wonderful. Call me crazy, but I think this game is on the verge to being even better than smash. Cant wait to play the final version when it releases. Hopefully I can become a playtester but until then, keep up the amazing work, Dev team!

 

[RoA_Zam]

Didn't get to redo all of the ini stuff to have my own custom textures before distributing but here ya go. Only have some stuff I've messed around with forsburn for:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/95000717/colors.ini

 

[RoA_Zam]

Anyways, even though I'm not a playtester, I just wanted to provide some feedback based on last night's smash fest. One thing everybody wanted was taunts. Looked it up and saw that developers already know that feature is in high demand. Another small suggestion one had was to have an aerial parry, one that is even harder to do than the ground one, with less frames, when you air dodge in place. His other suggestion was putting moonwalking into the game.

Aerial parry would make it impossible to airdodge or wavedash/land with wrastor and would generally be pretty broken. Taunts are already planned for the future but aren't as much of importance as new characters/modes are rn. Moonwalking is also something Dan is definitely considering.

Some questions we had that we couldnt fully figure out were:

Can anything be parried? We were trying to parry wrastor's down b during alot of the matches but couldnt seem to get the timing right. Moves like that and orcane's bubbles we never could successfully parry.

If two zetterburns are playing, can one get a burn bonus for smash attacking another character burned by the other zetterburn? For awhile we thought we couldnt but it did happen sometimes. Do the zetterburns have to be on the same team? Is it some type of bug where a character is getting burned by both colored fires but animation only shows one type of colored fire? Or are we just that dumb to never have noticed?

Parries work on anything that has a hitbox, including projectiles. Bubbles are parry'able but are much harder.

Fire doesn't stack up. If a character is burned and gets burned again by another character, it shows the most recent color of which zetterburn it was burned by but the knockback does not increase in any way.

Lastly, I thought I had heard the January build was compatible with mayflash adapter (the purple two port GC) but we couldnt figure out how to get that to work. Is there something extra we shouldve done to get that to work for Aether?

Thanks for such a wonderful. Call me crazy, but I think this game is on the verge to being even better than smash. Cant wait to play the final version when it releases. Hopefully I can become a playtester but until then, keep up the amazing work, Dev team!

The two-port adapter works fine. In the email it specifies that on RoA you press f5 to be able to toggle between d-input (GC) and xinput (xbox) controllers. Only 2 GC controllers can be used at one time while up to 4 xbox controllers can be used at one time. GC controllers can't be used at the same time as xbox controllers.

If you want to be a playtester, apply. If you don't get accepted, tweak your application and apply again. There's no penalty for trying again.

 

[Big Papi]

Wow! Thank you so much for all the info and clarification. And yes, I'll be sure to tweak the application sometime soon.

 

[jhunter_d]

I feel like missing a tech should have more of a punishment. In other Smash games, especially Melee, a missed tech could lead to a jab reset which could lead to a devastating combo. In RoA, I don't really feel like I'm getting penalized for missing a tech. Not only is there no threat of a jab reset, but the amount of frames that you're stuck in if you tech is about the same as if you miss the tech. I think that the only difference is that you get slight invincibility while teching, but IMO it's not enough to really make teching that important.

 

[Yurya]

I feel like missing a tech should have more of a punishment. In other Smash games, especially Melee, a missed tech could lead to a jab reset which could lead to a devastating combo. In RoA, I don't really feel like I'm getting penalized for missing a tech. Not only is there no threat of a jab reset, but the amount of frames that you're stuck in if you tech is about the same as if you miss the tech. I think that the only difference is that you get slight invincibility while teching, but IMO it's not enough to really make teching that important.

Teching is a bit different in this game by design choice.

First off knockdown is completely gone, meaning If you do nothing, your character will get up in 10 frames. However, during this time you are vulnerable. If you tech, you will gain invincibility for 10 frames, followed by 10 frames of vulnerability. You can also roll, gaining invincibility at first, but then the time exposed is increased after.
This means that the attacker will always have the advantage, but you have some ability to escape. This is part of a shift of design choices to make gameplay faster, while still granting options for both sides.

 

[Vadise]

Aw, shoot. Someone beat me to the 2-D Platformer Fighting Game. Now I'll never achieve my dream. It doesn't matter what you say now, because no one has even replied to my post, and no one really cares, because I do not have anything to show such as a demo or such. I was looking for helpers to help me make a demo, because I tried making one myself but graphics always get in the way, however, it seems a whole lot of people are looking at other projects.

I feel really bumbed now, if not devastated.

 

[Yurya]

Aw, shoot. Someone beat me to the 2-D Platformer Fighting Game. Now I'll never achieve my dream. It doesn't matter what you say now, because no one has even replied to my post, and no one really cares, because I do not have anything to show such as a demo or such. I was looking for helpers to help me make a demo, because I tried making one myself but graphics always get in the way, however, it seems a whole lot of people are looking at other projects.

I feel really bumbed now, if not devastated.

Yo bro, relax. You can still make a smash-like game. I don't think that Rivals will destroy your ability to do so. I don't know where you are in your progress for a new game, but here is resource that can help motivate and guide you https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z06QR-tz1_o You eat an Elephant one bite at a time.

 

[jhunter_d]

As long as you make your game different enough that it makes people want to play that alongside or as opposed to RoA, you can still make it. I'm making a 2D platform fighter right now, but it's very different from RoA so I'm still making it.

EDIT: Look into Unity. I'm using that engine to make my game and it's a godsend. Graphics are simple as hell. Everything is simple as hell. You *need* it.

About teching -- I get the point of why they did that, I just think that there should be some punishment for missing a tech. Maybe they add in teching up and down, and teching up is the equivalent of teching normally now, and down is the equivalent of missing a tech now. I still understand the developers' thinking on that. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[someonetookjacob]

So its been a while since I made a longer post, and I have played alot of the new build, brought it to a few events, and shared it with a non- fighting game fellow for an hour or two. So I thought I would share my own ideas, and some of the responses and feed back I have heard

First, The new water stage. The basic form is just two busy. I have heard a lot of people bring this up and I completely agree, but have a different suggested solution. I can understand wanting to keep the platforms moving, and I don't think the moving is the problem. I think the problem is that there is almost ALWAYS a new platform coming up or down. 4 is just two many. Especially for such a small area. (the stage is like the size of battlefield with 6 platforms) I suggest reducing the number on the wheel to two. This way you will still have the dynamic stage, but there wont be like a 50% chance of your dash attack getting annoyingly scooped up leaving you vulnerable. I think it should make grounded approaches that use projectiles (like kragg's rock and Ocrane's water drop) alot less annoying. An alternate solution might be to just slow the platforms down some, It might be desirable so there is still usually a platform at the top to help with juggles.

Second, a useful piece of feedback I think is well worth passing on. A visual indicator of how much damage you or an opponent has would be really nice. By which I mean maybe a color gradient applied to the % (like, 0% looks white, 150% looks black) or something similar. It would be nice if there was a way to tell without actually looking, just from your peripheral vision, whether you should be trying to combo, or kill. I would say this might be even more necessary in RoA than smash, just because there are alot of moves with set knockback. I know personally I have noticed after beating a cpu up to like 300 that I should probably go for a b-air or smash. I think this is a subtle (probably easy to program) change that might really help out players. I also dont really see any draw backs to it?

Third, (this isn't as important, I just thought it might be interesting to some of you) I brought RoA over to a friends place who doesn't play fighting games, and hasnt owned a smash game since 64 which he played very casually. He switched from nintendo to X-Box after the 64. I was curious what he would think of the game as a casual, mostly RPG and FPS playing x-box one owner. He actually loved it (which would not have been my hypothesis). He played as each of the characters a little bit (mostly against CPUs, it wouldnt do for me to just beat him up). He had a little trouble getting jumping into his game, and as a result did almost no aerials. I think this was probably why wrastor was his least favorite of the rivals. I think he was best with zetterburn (not so surprising) but he also figured out the various uses for Ocrane's puddle pretty quickly, getting a few nice combos using it. He mostly beat the CPU but only by a slight margin. After many of the matches he had to take a deep breath because of how tense the battles were. After playing and having me explain the features that would be in the game he said he would definitely buy it (unless it was a full 60 dollar game, which I dont think it will be?) but in its current demo state would probably only pay less than $10 for it on steam. He commented that he especially liked the less chaotic style that the default one-on-one battles without items offered, and the tense moments it created. Mostly I am just typing this out because I think its comforting to see that what I would consider a fairly representative x-box owner (I think? maybe? IDK...) interested in RoA. I was a little worried it might be too focused towards FGC and Smash (who mostly dont own x-boxes) folk. I am less so now.

Lastly, (probably) The only thing I personally DONT like about RoA. It has taken me alllooot of play time to figure out exactly what this is. Basically I think some moves just have way too much hitstun. Its not too uncommon to go flying all the way up near the top blast zone then plummet all the way back down to die off the bottom blast zone without being able to move. I think this would be alot more noticeable if in the future there were larger stages added into the game (which I bet there will be). I just think it feels unnatural, and dissatisfying. Perhaps if there was a cap on the amount of hitstun any move in the game could give you that would fix it? Its not that dying bothers me. Its that slowly dying while unable to do anything bothers me. I also think it looks a little strange to see a character arc through the sky but be in the same static, non changing angle through the whole flight. Does anyone else feel this way? Does anyone else think this is a problem? Just to be clear it doesnt ruin my experience, and it rarely even comes up, but it does bother me. And I do think it could be changed to offer a more natural looking and satisfying experience without hurting balance much at all.

If anyone read all that, Thank you, and sorry for the wall of text! Hopefully Its helpful in someway.

 

[Sol_Vent]

Didn't get to redo all of the ini stuff to have my own custom textures before distributing but here ya go. Only have some stuff I've messed around with forsburn for:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/95000717/colors.ini

Oh wow, so you can alter Forsburn's body color. That changes the concepts for my theme colors on him quite a bit. Really makes me want to play with colors in the new build. <.<

Second, a useful piece of feedback I think is well worth passing on. A visual indicator of how much damage you or an opponent has would be really nice. By which I mean maybe a color gradient applied to the % (like, 0% looks white, 150% looks black) or something similar. It would be nice if there was a way to tell without actually looking, just from your peripheral vision, whether you should be trying to combo, or kill. I would say this might be even more necessary in RoA than smash, just because there are alot of moves with set knockback. I know personally I have noticed after beating a cpu up to like 300 that I should probably go for a b-air or smash. I think this is a subtle (probably easy to program) change that might really help out players. I also dont really see any draw backs to it?

This has been talked about, and I think there was some mention awhile back of this being worked on for future builds. Still, it's very much worth mentioning. It's probably my number one gripe with the game so far.

Also, cool story about your friend. That's definitely not the reaction I would've expected, so it's awesome to hear stuff like this.

 

[akf09]

going to the weekly smash event at the college nearby going to bring a notepad and a pen and the mayflash adapter i recently got. try to get some PM players to test it out and write in some input and i will post it here and email it to dan. should be fun ive noticed that this game is MUCH smoother with a gamecube controller. so much so that i wonder how the game is on an x box controller as i know it is coming out on x box one. anyways probly post some feedback later tonight or tomorow. does anyone know of a good free hyper cam so i could record a few matches?

 

[RoA_Zam]

streamin the march update for a while http://www.twitch.tv/earthbones

 

[Steel Banana]

I let a lot of people play RoA at AfterShock this weekend and everyone seemed to love it. Arc (the melee Marth main from TX) played Wrastor and was doing crazy combos within a few minutes of picking up the game and beating everyone else. It was really great to see how much everyone loved the game.

 

[Binsou]

Bug: When playing Team Battle, sometimes the battle will end before the win condition is met and the Results Screen will be glitchy.

I had the exact same problem but with me as Zetterburn against 2 randoms, a Forsburn and another Zetturburn.

 

[Kasado-Bit]

Okay, I just got back from a local Smash Bros tournament. I was able to get this build in the hands of some better players than myself. One of the participants knew what RoA was, while the other two never heard of it before. Here are some observations that we made about the current build.

-During a Zetterburn vs Kragg match, my opponent (Kragg) tried to recover onto the stage with his Up B. I hit him with my projectile attack after he successfully summoned a pillar once and jumped off it. He tried to summon another pillar, failed, and was helpless. Then, I hit him with another projectile attack and got him out of the helpless state. He tried summoning another pillar, but failed that time. I don't know if the previous pillar was demolished or not.
-On the Fire Capital stage, Kragg used a down special attack while standing on the edge of the right building. The spikes continued forward, now going out of the ground below the building. When he tried it from the ground towards the building, nothing happened after the first spike.
-Kragg hit both myself and my smoke clone at one point and he didn't disappear. The second time he was hit, he burst into smoke.
-Orcane needs more pink alt.

All three of them liked the game thus far. Forsburn in particular got a lot of praise for being something they've never really seen in a platform fighter before, move wise.

 

[RoA_Zam]

-During a Zetterburn vs Kragg match, my opponent (Kragg) tried to recover onto the stage with his Up B. I hit him with my projectile attack after he successfully summoned a pillar once and jumped off it. He tried to summon another pillar, failed, and was helpless. Then, I hit him with another projectile attack and got him out of the helpless state. He tried summoning another pillar, but failed that time. I don't know if the previous pillar was demolished or not.
-On the Fire Capital stage, Kragg used a down special attack while standing on the edge of the right building. The spikes continued forward, now going out of the ground below the building. When he tried it from the ground towards the building, nothing happened after the first spike.
-Kragg hit both myself and my smoke clone at one point and he didn't disappear. The second time he was hit, he burst into smoke.

Kragg can only upB once until he touches the ground again. If he tries to upB again before touching the ground he gets a height boost but goes into a fall state until he walljumps, gets hit, or touches the ground. In the March update, any player standing on Kragg's pillar while the pillar breaks, will go into a fall state immediately.

Kragg's downB searches for the closest lower ground when going off an edge, if the closest next ground is above the level that Kragg is currently standing on, the spikes wont appear on the higher ground.

If both Forsburn's are hit at the same time, I've noticed that the real one takes priority over getting hit first and kinda acts like a shield for the illusion one. I kinda like it that way.

 

[WheelerFGC]

I'm going to be getting the Mayflash adapter soon, and I was wondering which "control scheme" would be ideal to use to emulate the smash control scheme?

the Email says "old mayflash controller", which one do you mean? Does the 4-port one work?

EDIT: Nevermind on the first part. But would it emulate the smash controls?